Missing factor in E-rate hype — Wrangling over pre-K research — New funding for DREAMers

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THE MISSING FACTOR IN E-RATE HYPE: President Barack Obama and the FCC want to pump billions of dollars into the nation’s education infrastructure to wire schools for broadband services, but their plans do little to fix a systemic problem threatening the fund that will pay for the upgrade. The program’s funding is based on revenue that is essentially generated by long-distance and international voice calls — a shrinking pie. That fact isn’t getting a lot of attention as Obama and FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler set their sights on a new $2 billion investment in the E-Rate program. “Finding unspent money and cutting voice funds is not an increase at all,” former FCC Chairman Reed Hundt wrote in an email. “It’s a midnight shuffle to seem to support Obama without increasing the contribution factor.” More from Maggie Severns and Pro Tech’s Brooks Boliek: http://politico.pro/1fq9aM9.

PRIVATE COMPANIES TO ANNOUNCE E-RATE BACKING TODAY: Private companies are getting behind President Barack Obama’s new push for increased access to high-speed Internet access and technology — to the tune of what they say is more than $750 million in services, training and hardware. Obama will say Tuesday that Apple, AT&T, Microsoft, Sprint, the Verizon Foundation and other companies will contribute the products and free high-speed Internet services, much of it targeting low-income schools, over the course of the next few years. The announcement at a Maryland middle school is part of a one-two punch on school Internet initiatives from the Obama administration this week: On Wednesday, Federal Communications Commissions Chairman Tom Wheeler will spell out changes to the multibillion-dollar E-Rate program, the federal program for technology subsidies. More from Maggie Severns: http://politi.co/MWGAKy

WRANGLING OVER PRE-K RESEARCH: Libby Doggett, the head of the Education Department’s early learning arm, and Brookings Brown Center on Education Policy Director Russ Whitehurst sparred over the research behind early childhood education Monday during an Education Writers Association conference in New Orleans. The two debated various studies and the evidence behind the lasting impacts of pre-K. In late December, Pro’s Caitlin Emma wrote about the mixed evidence behind universal preschool: http://politico.pro/1dXw8te.

—Doggett told Morning Education that she's looking forward to the House and Senate hearings this week about early childhood education. She expects to hear about exciting initiatives at the state level, she said. The House and Senate version of the Strong Start for America's Children Act was introduced in mid-November. Both are closely aligned to Obama's "Preschool for All" proposal, but with no designated funding stream. And with little appetite for new spending in Congress, are the hearings an exercise in futility? Absolutely not, Doggett said. There wouldn't be so much clamoring for early childhood education from the business community, state and local officials and more if it was futile, she said. "We're in this for the long haul," she said, and you can expect to see more "movement on the federal level."

NEW FUNDING FOR DREAMERS: Former Washington Post owner Don Graham, ex-Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez and philanthropist (and new finance chairman of the Democratic National Committee) Henry Muñoz today will announce the formation of a new group, TheDream.US. The organization will make a “significant investment” in education for young undocumented immigrants who have been granted temporary reprieve from deportation under Obama administration policy, a spokesperson said. Currently, students here under the reprieve (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) are allowed to stay in the U.S. and attend college, but they don’t qualify for federal student aid or Pell grants, and state aid and scholarships available to DACA students varies from state-to-state. So it’s often costly to attend. The event is at 10:30 a.m. at the Newseum’s Knight Conference Center.

D.C. COUNCIL WEIGHS COLLEGE AID PROMISE: The D.C. city council votes today on whether to promise low- and middle-income students help with college costs. A federal program, known as DCTAG, already provides up to $10,000 a year in tuition aid for local teens who attend public colleges in D.C. or historically black colleges elsewhere. The new initiative, dubbed DC Promise, would give students up to $7,500 a year to attend a wide array of colleges and universities. Students could use the funds for tuition, textbooks, activity fees or other expenses. The program is expected to cost nearly $8 million in the first year, rising to $20 million by 2017.

— Councilman (and possible mayoral candidate) David Catania, who proposed D.C. Promise, says he’s modeling it on similar programs in Kalamazoo, Mich., New Haven, Conn., and Tacoma, Wash. He says he hopes students will be more inclined to earn their high school diploma if they know they’ll have help paying for college. And he expects a ripple effect: “The first in a family to go to college ultimately brings their cousins, brothers, sisters along with them,” he said.

MONDAY FLASHBACK: “Value-added” scores depend in part on factors outside a teacher’s control, according to a new federally funded study: http://politico.pro/1fq7AK7… The House of Representatives passed a bill 390-0 granting in-state tuition to veterans: http://politico.pro/1fq7zWA… The ranking member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform says 111 colleges are making students pay to apply for financial aid: http://politico.pro/1fq7IJC.

UTEACH TEACHER PREP EXPANDS: STEM teacher training program UTeach will announce today that it will expand its model to five more universities. With the additions, 40 institutions in all will host the program, which gives aspiring teachers solid science training by running the college primarily out of a university’s science department. And it’s designed to get them through college in four years or less — so students don’t have to enroll for extra terms (and pay extra tuition) to graduate with both science coursework and a teaching degree.

—To open new campuses, UTeach either has to change or get waived a host of state teacher prep regulations. it’s worth it: The alternative is that teacher training is prohibitively time-consuming and costly to college students in STEM fields, and it drives them away. “You have states — well-intended, well-meaning states — producing single-digit physics teachers,” MIchael Marder, co-director of UTeach at University of Austin, says. The Gates Foundation-backed nonprofit National Math and Science Initiative has been working to scale up the program because of its promising employment statistics: Five years after completing the program, 80 percent of teachers with a UTeach degree are still in the classroom.

—The five new sites: Drexel University, Florida International University, Oklahoma State, University of Alabama-Birmingham and University of Maryland-College Park.

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MORE NEW FUNDING: The Wallace Foundation is launching a five-year, $24-million initiative to help six urban school districts improve training for administrators who supervise principals. The project includes an independent study to evaluate the effect on the principals’ schools. http://bit.ly/LsULWa

—The Helmsley Charitable Trust is donating $1.5 million to the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education to enhance STEM scholarship at 10 historically black colleges. The program aims to boost STEM training for minority students.

REPORT ROLL CALL

—KnowledgeWorks and the International Association for K-12 Online Learning (iNACOL) offer tips for states and K-12 districts considering shifting to competency-based education, where credits are awarded based on mastery of the material, not hours spent in the classroom: http://bit.ly/1esNH72

—Education Next looks at new ways to integrate student learning measures into teacher evaluations: http://bit.ly/1idK3Oq

—Data Quality Campaign recommends state policies that can help teachers use student data to shape instruction: http://politico.pro/1bWakMP

SYLLABUS

—About 1,400 New York City charter school parents and advocates will lobby state legislators in Albany today as they prepare to do battle with the de Blasio administration. Capital New York: http://bit.ly/1al9xtM

—Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam proposes giving every state high school graduate free community college tuition, using state reserves to pay for it. The Tennessean: tnne.ws/1n7RlnO

—Report details the bias and sexism in the University of Colorado’s philosophy department. Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/1eNq71g.

—A proposed soda tax in San Francisco would raise an estimated $31 million annually for nutrition education and expanding physical education in public schools, among other things. POLITICO Pro Agriculture: http://politico.pro/1aYAtAd

—Personal data for hundreds of Virginia students is mistakenly posted online. The Washington Post: http://wapo.st/1fq8uWY.

—What should the next step be for adjunct professors who now have congressional attention? The Chronicle of Higher Education: http://bit.ly/1fqaC0Y.

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